Career
Smith was a prolific Toronto architect who designed a variety of buildings, although he is best remembered for his domestic architecture. He designed the preparatory school of Upper Canada College and the Forest Hill residence of Frederick Wilhelm Kischel (later the site of Thornton Hall Private School). Smith built Saint Hilda"s College (1899), on the grounds of Trinity College, (now University of Trinity College) originally located in what is now Trinity Bellwoods Park.
And Devonshire Place (1907) Devonshire House Residences, both on the grounds of the University of Toronto.
During the First World War, he built three Carnegie libraries for the Toronto Public Library: the Wychwood branch, the High Park branch, and the Beaches branch. In 1913, he designed the Riverdale Courts, later the Bain Company-op, an early low-income housing project near Withrow Park in Riverdale.
He is also credited with the Studio Building (Toronto), which was the non-profit home/studio of many of the Group of Seven (artists). He designed many of the homes in the Wychwood Park neighbourhood and is thought to have built approximately 2,500 residences in Toronto over his career.
His homes are strongly influenced by the English Arts and Crafts movement and many fall within the English Cottage style with steeply pitched roofs, tall chimneys, bands of small-paneled casement windows, and side-center internal plans.
He died on October 10, 1949 and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Guelph, Ontario. His public housing co-op project, located in Cabbagetown at Spruce and Sumach Streets, was built in 1917 and is another example of his work.